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Television

‘Sirens’ set to light up Canadian debut

The third episode of the new comedy series Sirens is titled Rachel McAdams Topless.

I've seen the episode, and it doesn't live up to its billing in a literal sense. But there's still plenty to gawk at in Sirens, which makes its Canadian debut Thursday, March 13 on the Comedy Network.

Sirens debuted on the USA network in the States a couple of weeks ago, so American viewers will see the Rachel McAdams Topless episode on the same night the series is premiering in Canada. McAdams, a Canadian, isn't even in the episode, so I should just drop it. But if you start watching Sirens from the beginning, my bet is by episode No. 3 you'll still be checking it out, so to speak.

Adapted from a British series of the same name, this new version of Sirens is about Emergency Medical Technicians in Chicago. It was developed by Denis Leary (Rescue Me) and Bob Fisher, and it stars Michael Mosley, Kevin Daniels, Kevin Bigley and Jessica McNamee.

When you start watching Sirens, if you get the impression it merely is going to be wise-ass paramedics engaged in a put-down competition, stick with it, because it gets funnier than that.

For example, in the second episode, I really laughed when Johnny (Mosley), Hank (Daniels) and Brian (Bigley) are giving a CPR lesson to kids in the park, and the kids start asking questions. The names of the kids truly cracked me up, too.

Obviously the EMTs deal with serious situations, but the tone of Sirens accurately suggests that the only way these people can keep doing their jobs is to have active senses of humour. Yet they keep their stone faces for imperiled citizens. Leary said it's all about striking the proper balance.

"Hopefully on this show there are episodes and moments when we kind of do the reverse thing from Rescue Me," Leary said.

"On Rescue Me, it was a very heavy show that we occasionally stuck the knife in and it made you laugh unexpectedly. Here, a couple times during the season, you're going to be laughing your ass off and all of a sudden feel an emotional jolt. So it's very rich territory, I think."

By the way, for fans of Leary in particular, he said he isn't going to be making any on-screen appearances in Sirens.

"Listen, man, I would get up at 4:30 in the morning getting ready for the call (as Sirens was filming), and the first thing I would say every day was, 'F---! My lines!' " Leary recalled. "But then I would go, 'I don't have any f---ing lines!' I can wear sweat pants or whatever the f--- I want to the set. I can look like s---. I love it. I f---ing love it.

"I just sit there and smoke and laugh. I sit at the monitor. I smoke and I laugh and drink coffee. It's f---ing the greatest job yet."

Hey, who needs Denis Leary on screen when you have Rachel McAdams Topless? Well, not literally.

We're all trained to get the hell out of the way when we hear sirens approaching. But as far as the TV series Sirens is concerned, it's okay to do a little rubber-necking.